Tucson Festival of Books Recap

Photo by CR Reardon with Ashley Grove's camera

On Saturday, Fire & Gold Belly Dance performed at the Tucson Festival of Books, which is a HUGE event hosted at the University of Arizona featuring local and national (perhaps international?) authors, performing arts, vending, food, science education and a whole lot more.

Even though I LOVE books I'd never made it to this event, due to the fact that it always seemed to conflict with other scheduled events this time of year. So I have to admit that when I heard we were going to perform at it, my first thought was "Cool" but my second thought was "What does belly dance have to do with books?" When I actually got to the event and saw that we were next to a circus (!) and followed by Colombian dancers, it made a lot more sense. It may be the Festival of Books, but there's a whole lot of general "festival" atmosphere to go along with the books. This is actually a smart move because it probably makes it easier for bookworms to get their less-bookish friends and family to come along with them, and gives some exciting diversions for little ones who might have a short attention span.

A word about outdoor events in Arizona: you never know what you're going to get when it comes to weather. Friday was windy, cloudy, and even cold at times, so I was pretty worried about Saturday. Sure enough, although it was warm and clear, Saturday was SO WINDY! In the picture above you can actually see the back wall of our stage blowing in. This made prop work a little difficult, and there was grass and cotton candy blowing in the wind, too. But despite this weather we managed to draw a sizable and enthusiastic crowd, including a bunch of little girls who were excited about the idea of belly dance lessons.

My original plan was to wander the festival for a few hours after performing, but the wind made that a less-than-attractive prospect, so instead a few of us found a restaurant for a bite to eat. I did get to see some of the booths on the way back to the car and I was really impressed by the variety! It seemed like every genre under the sun was represented. There were self-publishing authors, local book stores, large publishers, artists, local organizations and so much more! I hope that next year the weather will be more cooperative and I can really browse and find some new reading material. 

Work, work, work

I don't have a picture to go with this blog post so here's one of my corgis dressed like Frankenweenie

 

I have to be honest, I haven't done a very good job on dancing full time yet. I start each day off with the best of intentions and then I always manage to sabotage myself with "I just need to do this first, I'll dance later" or "I dunno, I might be coming down with a cold, I should probably take it easy." I'm not very proud of myself, but dwelling on my failure isn't going to help me. Time to move forward.

 

Yesterday I decided to dispense with the excuses and do some work. I already had an hour of Skype stretching with my bestie Jen planned (having a physical therapist as a best friend is awesome, don't worry, I give her lots of pretty jewelry to make up for taking advantage of her know-how), and an hour of troupe practice too. I figured I should spend the time before my stretch date getting nice and warm with some DANCE! So I practiced two solos I'm working on, some troupe choreos, and some drills. Let me tell you, these long weeks of laziness have taken a toll on me, even after a good warm-up my arms were sore from one song of fan veils. If anything would motivate me to work harder, it was that.

 

So after dancing, I had a really good stretch with Jen, and a few hours later it was off to troupe practice where we spent the hour drilling choreography to try to get our newest troupemate all caught up. I built up one heckuva sweat! I think it was the hardest we've worked in troupe practice in a while. Not that we tend to slack off, but this is one of our most energetic pieces and we didn't spend a lot of time talking about it, we just kept repeating and repeating, really quickly answering her questions and going again.

 

Needless to say, I am pretty sore today. My glutes and obliques are being especially loud about their displeasure with me. But it's a good sore. I decided not to dance today to let my muscles recover, but rather than being lazy I've been doing some dance-related reading that I need to have done by the end of this month. Tomorrow it will be back to drills! 

Fire & Gold is Back!

We're going to need new pics to reflect our current roster, but I still like this one by Liora K.

Last night was Fire & Gold Bellydance's first practice as a collective. It felt like it had been forever, since we had to take two weeks off for the holidays and then our first get-together of the year was a meeting to make plans and delegate responsibilities and make sure everyone was on the same page.

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of us so far. Being a collective isn't easy, without a director to tell everyone what to do, practices can devolve into chat, and there can be lots of disagreements about what to do. But we're starting off strong with a focus on getting everyone caught up on current choreographies and a proper costume wardrobe. I feel like it helps that we spent almost two years as a student troupe so we have a good foundation of how a practice should be structured, and we have existing material we can work on and keep performing while we figure out what we want to create on our own. It also helps that we have Open Stage to dance at every month, and a big festival performance in the Spring that we want to do really well at.

I'm so happy to be able to keep working with these ladies and I can't wait to see what we accomplish in 2014! 

Last Troupe Practice of the Year.

Tableau of bellydancers from our Tucson Meet Yourself set.

Tonight is our last troupe practice of 2013, since Christmas falls on a Wednesday -- what the heck? And then New Years Day is ALSO a Wednesday, so we have two weeks off of practice. Man, holidays are just so inconvenient sometimes.

It's also our last practice with Jolie as a director. When we meet back up in 2014 we will be a self-governing collective. It's going to be weird! We've already been discussing who is going to handle what, and some vague ideas for future choreographies.

We've poured a lot of love and work into this student troupe, from going to classes and rehearsals, to practicing hard at home, to putting literal blood, sweat and tears into our handmade costumes. I think we've got a good foundation to build on! 

Shakedown Rundown!

Photo courtesy of The Fantom Fotog/Santa Joe.

The title of this post is doubly accurate, because I'm going to give you a rundown of what happened at the Shakedown, but also I am feeling rundown from the Shakedown (seriously, what did I DO to my shoulders? You'd think those fan veils were made of of lead with how sore I am).

I got there bright and early for the Spanish skirt workshop with Rajani. I was happy to see that even though it was held at 9am, there was a nice crowd and we all had a good time learning a whole ton of moves and some historic/cultural context. My troupemate Melanie was there too, so hopefully there's some skirt work in Fire & Gold's future. Rajani provided us with a really good handout that should help me actually remember what I learned.

After that it was off to lunch with my BFF Jen, and then she let me take over her bathroom to put my face on, and she didn't even steal my new Kat Von D palette, so you know she's a good friend (stay tuned for a review of said palette on Friday, it's a goodie).

For my solo, I performed with my stunningly beautiful fan veils, to "Desert Dance" by Children of Paradise. I think I did a pretty good job, I'll have to wait to get the video to see how well it actually went, but I got a lot of compliments and not all of them were on my costume and fans. I feel like the painted background makes for nice photos, good job on dressing the stage, AZMECDA!

Then it was shopping time! I was finally able to get my hands on a really pretty new 25 yard skirt that I had ordered back at the Bisbee retreat (no big deal on the delay since Yasmina didn't ask for a deposit), and I also bought a cool barrette and some yummy tea. I had to restrain myself from buying more things, but I really should start saving up for the shopping bonanza that is Tribal Fest. Still, it's important to support your local dance vendors!

Soon my troupemates showed up, so we wandered around together, watched some performances, shopped, and got ready to dance. Jolie did a beautiful solo and then we had an 8 minute set with two of our favorite choreos and a mini drum solo from Brandye. The crowd enjoyed it and we got some nice photos. Success!

We finished out our night at Cracker Barrel. In true bellydancer form, we were wearing normal clothes but still had on our sparkly stage makeup, some jewelry and bindis. Probably more glamour than Cracker Barrel is really meant to handle. It was nice to sit down for a meal together, though, to chat and plan for the future and daydream about costumes and workshops.

I'm feeling really inspired by the wonderful dancers I saw at the Shakedown, and I'm looking forward to hitting my training hard this week, even if the first couple days may have to be focused on some yoga for my poor shoulders! 

New troupe performance video!

I'm happy to be able to share with you this video of my troupemates and I performing one of our favorite choreographies! This video was taken at the Plaza de Anaya Fall Intensive show, featuring Wild Card Belly Dance. We had such a great time being a part of this show, carpooling there and back and eating a late-night dinner at Denny's (still in stage makeup, naturally).

SFOF Class Card Sale -- Come Dance With Us!

Now is a really good time to start taking classes with Jolie Roberson of Skirt Full of Fire. Let me give you two really good reasons to come to class (assuming that you're local to Tucson, otherwise you're off the hook for this one):

1. Starting in October, Fire & Gold student troupe rehearsals will be open to everyone as we learn a group choreography to be performed at the holiday showcase. That's right, you'll get a performance opportunity without having to commit to being in a troupe. Our rehearsals are conveniently held right after the Wednesday night Choreography & Combinations class.

2. Until the 30th, Skirt Full of Fire is having a class card sale! You can save on 5 and 10 class cards, or really treat yourself and get a 30 day unlimited pass. Or if you're not sure whether you're ready to take the plunge, you can get two-for-one drop-ins. Check out the newsletter for complete details and links to purchase your cards.

Oh, ok, I lied, I'm going to give you THREE good reasons:

3. If you've followed my progress over the past few years, you may have noticed a steady increase in my skills, emotionality, confidence, good attitude, makeup and costuming. Now granted, some of that is due to my own hard work and dedication, but that wouldn't have been nearly as effective without a great teacher directing my work in the right direction. Jolie helps her students grow as dancers with great instruction, firm but gentle correction, and lots of encouragement. I can't recommend her highly enough and I'd really love to see more people in class growing alongside the current core group of students. Join us!

Fire & Gold Performances

Lately I've been posting a lot about my solo performances, so I wanted to take a moment and let you know that of course I'm still dancing with these beautiful ladies! You have at least two upcoming opportunities to watch us perform:

First, this Thursday is Open Stage at Sky Bar. Not only is this an awesome event, but we will be debuting our latest choreography which has been in the works for quite some time.

Second is August 31st, when we will be dancing at Plaza de Anaya for the gala show as part of the Fall Intensive. This will be a big F&G/SFOF collaboration number, and there will be a lot of other great dancers performing, including the workshop instructors, WildCard.

If that seems like not a lot of performances, well, August is usually a pretty dead month in AZ! It's unbearably hot still, but everybody is getting back to school, so there's just not a lot of energy to go around for dancing. I think things are going to pick up significantly in the Fall! Remember to keep an eye on the Upcoming Performances sidebar on this blog!

It's so BIG!

Tonight was our first troupe practice in the new BreakOut Studios, and WOW! The room is so BIG! And bright! And beautiful! Wooden dance floors, new mirrors, freshly painted walls... And it was warm enough that I danced in a t-shirt. I'm in looooove.

I'm also excited because we have new troupe members! And old members who were busy are coming back! It's a nice big, robust group again. We worked hard on the new choreography that we started before the break, with hopes of having it finished soon so we can start on yet another one. I'm happy to be working on new material for all of our shows that are coming up.

Speaking of shows, Denim Day is coming up on Saturday! It's at Fluxx Studios off of 4th Ave and runs from 7pm-12am. I'm not sure where we are in that, but it's a fundraiser show with artists showing their work and probably other performers, too, so if you can, plan to be there all night :)

Hard at work

You might think that for our last troupe practice before the studio closes for the rest of the year that we MIGHT take it easy, just practice some old choreos or do some drills or shoot the breeze. You would be wrong. Instead we took the usual class time, and our troupe practice time, and crammed them together into one two-hour choreography marathon. We learned 2 minutes of a new choreography, and none of it was simple walking, posing, or doing our own thing.

I am exhausted.

But I am also happy to have something new to practice for these two weeks. I'm not traveling for the holidays, and I don't have any major plans. Even if the studio wasn't moving, we would have had to skip the next two practices anyway due to them falling on Christmas Eve and NYE, respectively. So while I'll miss seeing my troupemates, at least I will have something to work on other than drills and practicing the same old choreos (which I will also practice, because I have been slacking).

Right now, however, I just want to go crawl into bed with a book and sleep for about 12 hours.

Jam-Packed Saturday!

Check out this pre-show shot of Skirt Full of Fire (front row with the fabulous LEGS!) and Fire & Gold (back row with the gorgeous tops!) prior to performing at An Evening of Dance, hosted by Belly Dance Tucson with headliner Sadie!

This was such a crazy busy Saturday! First, I went to one of the Sadie workshops because a friend had a scheduling conflict and offered to let me take her spot. It was a drum solo secrets workshop, with lots of drills and locks and fast-paced combos. I got a great workout! Drum solos are so amazingly hard and it was hard to keep up with Sadie. However, I felt pretty good. All the time I've spent in class for the past year has really trained my brain and body to be quicker at picking up unfamiliar material, or at least faking it well enough that I'm not a hot mess and throwing others off. Sadie did a pretty good job of explaining everything she taught and had a really friendly attitude. I can see why she's so popular! This was her first time teaching in AZ, so a lot of dancers came all the way from Phoenix for the chance to study with her.

Then I went to my troupemate Liora's house so we could do our makeup together. We shared makeup and she gave me some great tips because she used to work at Sephora and she's a fashion photographer, so she really knows her stuff! She helped with my eye makeup and made it look awesome. I also got to wear the new Eye Kandy glitter that Jen brought me from Vegas. WOO glitter!

At the show, we were the opening act, which is always my favorite. When you start the show, you then get to kick back, relax, and watch all the other great performances, which is exactly what we did. It was a jam-packed show (I wish I had a copy of the group shot!) with numerous troupes and soloists, topped off by a set by Sadie, who even went into the audience and got people up to dance. I thought this was great because it meant that those who were seated farther back also got to see her up-close and enjoy her dazzling stage presence.

I was pretty tired by the end of the night, but such is the life of a dancer!

So Busy!

I had a crazy busy dance weekend, and that's after paring down some of my plans because I couldn't do everything.

Today I drove all the way up to the Phoenix area for a very special practice, which I'll blog more about tomorrow when I am hopefully less exhausted. I also got to drop by Plaza real quick and see my Anaya friends. Every time I see them dance I miss being around them! Anaya Tribal really has some of the best ITS moves, they always look so polished, and their zilling sounds SO GOOD! If you are going to be at the Vegas Intensive, you should make sure to go see them on stage and in the vending area.

Then I got home and went to troupe practice, and only two of us showed up, so we got to spend the night drilling things that we needed to work on -- including 20 minutes of shimmy drills. Hence the exhaustion. I am now ready to eat a cookie and veg out for the rest of the night.

Working through it

Tonight I was feeling heavy-hearted and a little nauseated, but I went to class and practice anyway because I've missed too many lately. I started to feel better as soon as I got there, which I attribute to the healing power of awesome troupemates. There's such great energy in that group, everyone just seems to generally like each other and to love what we do.

And luckily, tonight was not too demanding. We revisited the choreography that Jolie did in Saturday's class, which I really like and did pretty well at. Then we went over some videos to see what we needed to work on, and did a moving meditation. It was good to just dance, without stressing over choreography.

Now to just get back into practicing at home! Today was all about my jewelry business (ok, and playing video games on my husband's lunch break), but tomorrow I should be able to tackle some chaines and work on some solos and maybe even do some prop work.

Loving what I do

Duke Standberry snapped this picture of the ladies of Skirt Full of Fire and Fire & Gold Belly Dance* after filming for Walk on the Wild Side with Cat, a show that airs on the local Access TV channel. We're not sure yet when it will air, and then when it will be available on-line, but I'll keep you all updated on that.

Saturday was a hugely busy day. First I went to the Community Class, then my husband and I grabbed a delicious lunch (this is my usual Saturday now, as I really want to support the merchants on 4th Avenue during the construction that is going on downtown). Once we got home I had to get ready for my outdoor photo shoot! It was 100+ degrees and windy, so it was challenging to stay glamorous. Then I had to change into my troupe costume in the park bathroom (yuck!) and touch up my makeup and hair in the car (don't worry, my husband was driving) so I could be ready to be on TV with the troupe! The whole TV filming thing took a couple of hours. All told, I put in the equivalent of a full day's work into my dance career!

It was a great day, though. I am excited about the photos and the show, I had a wonderful time working with SFOF and F&G (as always), and I got to wear some exciting new makeup and hair accessories. I'm feeling more and more like a professional. I may not be making a living at this, but I treat it like my job and do my best to present a professional image, and demonstrate an admirable work ethic. Dance is one of those things where you get back what you put into it. I am pouring my heart, soul, and hours of my time into it, and in return I am gaining respect, happiness, and new opportunities.

*I personally feel that when we work together, we should be called Skirt Full of Fire and Gold. I'm pretty sure such a skirt would have to be made of Kevlar.

Get in your Glom

Glom is totally the technical name for the formation we're doing in our new choreography.

Fun times! We are working on a choreo that we will actually do the majority of the work on, with Jolie guiding us to help us make the best decisions. I have never choreographed anything before, so I am a little intimidated.

We have a couple up-and-coming members of the troupe, too. We're growing!

More gigs are lined up, too. I'll add them to the list on the side as I get more details.

Troupe Love!

I love this picture from our Mijana's show! I think it's a beautiful illustration of how dancing with Fire & Gold makes me feel. I've danced with a lot of great ladies, but this is definitely the troupe where I've felt the most at home.

At Monday night's practice, we talked about what the future holds -- more choreos, more performances, more costumes, a photo shoot. It's all very exciting! I'm glad that we're not really slowing down for the Summer, because honestly, there's nothing non-dance-related to do during these hot months, I might as well keep busy with my troupe!

Still kicking

I have really fallen off of the blogging wagon. Between my recent house-sitting adventures, my hatred of Blogger's new design, and the total lack of interaction from my readers (yeah, I said it!), I have not really felt a lot of enthusiasm for blogging lately. Don't worry, it's not just you guys, my jewelry blog hasn't been updated in over 3 weeks.

Anyway, I'm still keeping a really busy class and troupe practice schedule. I actually had to skip the second class tonight because I was just too worn out. Hopefully I'll sleep well tonight, because I really need to practice for my two upcoming shows. I've barely worked on my solo for the Open Stage on Thurs. Of course, I also haven't received confirmation that I have a spot in the show, so there's that.

In the meantime, I'm daydreaming about future solos, new costumes, and going to Tribal Fest next year. I have $40 in my Tribal Fest fund, hooray!

So much dancing!

Well, I've been quite the busy dancer. On Saturday we had a 2-hour dress rehearsal for the show. Sunday was the show itself, which went really well. I'll hopefully post some pictures and video next week. Let's just say that it is really awesome having a professional photographer in our troupe!

You might think that after a big show we would take it easy, but no! Members of Fire & Gold Belly Dance and our big sister troupe Skirt Full of Fire Dance Company will be banding together to perform an awesome choreography at the BreakOut Studios feature night on June 2nd. It's probably my favorite choreography so far.

Between now and then, I will also be performing a solo at the Open Stage night at the Luxor Cafe, hosted by the Safar Dance Co. That's on May 31st.

After that... who knows? I don't think the troupe has any more gigs lined up yet, as Summer tends to be pretty slow here in Tucson. Given that it's usually still around 100 degrees when I drive to class at 7pm, it's easy to understand why everyone either leaves town if they can, or hides in air conditioned buildings.

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

You know all of those troupe choreographies I've been working so hard at learning? And the glow fan solo I've been talking so much about? You can come see all of that and more this Sunday! Skirt Full of Fire and Fire & Gold will both be performing at Mijana's in Tempe this weekend, starting at 7pm. Visit the Event Page on Facebook for more details!

I got a preview of what everyone else is working on for their solos and duets on Monday, and it was some pretty fabulous stuff! Our troupe members come from a wide variety of dance backgrounds and you can see that reflected in their individual dance styles. It's going to be a varied show with a great assortment of music and dance. Also, we're going to be dressed quite beautifully and colorfully!

There are more performances coming up as well... I think I need to add an "Upcoming Performances" sidebar to this blog so you all can keep track of me!

National Belly Dance Day!

Today was National Belly Dance Day! I had some free time this afternoon, so I decided to make a treasury of some beautiful dancey-dance Etsy items.

Because it's a Saturday, I also went to the Community Class! It was just three of us from Fire & Gold, so Jolie turned it into an extra troupe practice. We finished our third choreo (and good thing too, since we have to perform it a week from tomorrow), so when the normal practice rolls around on Monday, it will be all figured out and the rest of the troupe can learn it and we can drill the heck out of it and be awesome. I actually feel more comfortable with this piece than with the second one, even though it's been done for longer. This last piece uses a lot of ITS-style moves, so the vocabulary is really familiar to me. There's not as many small accents to keep track of. Plus it's a fun song and a saucy choreo.

I'm really excited for our show next weekend, but also a little nervous. I have to admit I am not really loving my glow fan solo. I am kind of tired of my fans. I actually have a small scar on my inner elbow from where I hit myself with one while demoing for the rest of the troupe. I think I might have to wear sleeves when I perform.